Rosh Hashanah 2009 - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

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JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009who had lived in the Cape at the same time as he had.But unlike Hemmy, he did not swallow it hook, lineand sinker. Mentzel was so dismayed at what Kolbehad written that he sat down and wrote his ownaccount, accusing Kolbe of superficiality,slovenliness, affectation and plagiarism. 26Berlin-born, Mentzel was well read and a keenobserver with an insatiable curiosity. He arrived inCape Town in 1732 and lived happily there as a tutorfor children until one unfortunate day in 1741, eagerto catch the mail, he boarded a ship to deliver a lastminute letter. The wind came up suddenly andprevented him from returning to shore that night sohe had no choice but to sleep over. When he awokethe next morning, he found that the captain hadforgotten he was there and that he was on his wayback to Holland, sans all his clothes and possessions.He was never able to return. Back in Europe, heentered the Prussian Civil Service in the recentlyacquired Province of Silesia, rising to become Chiefof Police at Neustädtel in Lower Silesia and dyingthere in 1801.Infuriated by what Kolbe had written, Mentzelwrote his own book, A Complete and AuthenticGeographical and Topographical Description of theFamous and (All Things Considered) RemarkableAfrican Cape of Good Hope. many years after hisunexpected return. 27 He felt that his eight years spentin the Cape made him more qualified than those whohad not been in Cape Town as long as he had and hedid not hesitate to correct other writers when theirstatements conflicted with his own personalobservations. Mentzel ends his author’s preface tothe Second Volume as follows:My work still has to be judged and I submit it toevery intelligent and critical reader to whom Ioffer my best respects, and whom I commend tothe grace and protection of God. O.F. Mentzel,26 February 1787 on my 78 th birthday.I can say with certainty that everything thatKolbe and several others on his authority havewritten over and above what I have mentioned,is inconsistent with the truth, in so far as theyhave written down exaggerations of unimportantthings to lengthen their accounts, and one cantruthfully say of them: It is easy to tell falsehoodsabout distant countries… I do not wish to concernmyself with any more refutations. It is enoughthat I have shown what Kolbe’s work is worth. 28Mentzel did not, like Kolbe, write for publicsuccess but out of a desire to spread the truth as hesaw it. Unfortunately, unlike Kolbe’s work, Mentzel’sbook attracted little notice and fell into obscurity.This is a pity, because his book is a primary sourceon what he saw and a critical commentary on thewritings of his contemporaries. It is interesting andreadable and he comes across as somebody who issympathetic and the possessor of sound commonsense, insight and humanity. 29 He had enjoyed meetingand talking to all sorts of people and had a finelydeveloped sense of curiosity. It is obvious from hiswork that he had read literature on the Hottentots, butthat he had also obtained information from talking tothem, as well as to people who knew them fromelephant hunters to farmers. 30Mentzel has a long chapter on the Hottentots,which is essentially a criticism of Kolbe. Here, helooks at the question troubling all of the early visitors:“What is the origin of the Hottentots? From whatnation are they descended? And how did they get tothe most Southerly point of Africa?” Mentzel saysthat “up to now, only a great deal of silly nonsensehas been the outcome of these questions”.The practical Mentzel reasons that the Hottentotscould not possibly have come down from Asia “wherewithout any doubt man first lived after the Deluge”because the terrible deserts, mountain chains and bigrivers that lay between these two continents “almostexclude the possibility of believing in an emigrationto such a remote place”. He concludes that it wouldbe futile to trace their descent, “but when a fewscholars theorise about or even try to determine fromwhich nations the Hottentots are descended, such asthe Carthaginian tribes of Africa, or the troglodytes,or even the Jews; surely the few customs they havein common with these prove nothing: for these mayhave come about accidentally”. 31Mentzel spends considerable space demolishingKolbe’s comparison between the Jews and Hottentots.“Kolbe takes great pains to prove that the Hottentotshave much in common with the Jews; but this theorydoes not hold. I shall give his reasons and my opinionin parallel columns”. 32Mentzel then proceeded to draw up a businessliketable to refute Kolbe’s list of similarities betweenJews and Hottentots, placing Kolbe’s statement onone side of the page, and his own rebuttal on theother. He balances Kolbe’s opinions with factual,and sometimes sarcastic, rebuttals that showconsiderable knowledge of the customs of bothpeople. The whole table is included for interest.Kolbe’s supposed evidence for the comparisonwas based on the following claims:(1) Since they [Hottentots] often make offerings;(2) since they calculate their days and especiallytheir festivals by the new and full moon; (3) sincethey are not allowed to cohabit with their wives atcertain times; (4) since, if caught in non-observanceof this custom, they have to sacrifice again; (5) since,just as the Jews often eat unleavened bread andunsalted food, they may never eat salt, unless theyare among the Christians; (6) since they have toundergo a definite kind of circumcision; (7) sincethey eat nothing that has died of suffocation; (8)since they eat no scaleless fish; (9) since they neverallow their wives to attend their meetings dealingwith public affairs and (10) since they may divorcetheir wives.To each of these, Mentzel responded as follows:(1) Hottentots never make sacrifices in honourof a God; but for a different purpose, that is they15
JEWISH AFFAIRS ROSH HASHANAH 2009slaughter cattle to cure a patient with the freshfat. The meat, entrails and hide are eaten by theentire village as a common food, but none offeredto the Gods by fire(2) All Indian tribes reckon the seasons accordingto the changes of the moon. The Hottentotshowever have no festivals calculated and fixedaccording to changes of the moon; indeed, theyhave no festivals at all. Their dancing at or aboutfull moon is no festive act which they have toperform, but merely a merry-making which theyhave in common with many tribes and whichthey omit if the weather is unpleasant or rainy(3) At such times the men of no nation touchtheir wives.(4) Not sacrifice, but present the kraal with ahead of cattle as at weddings or the birth of achild, especially a son.(5) O! Sancta Simplicitus! Hottentots have nobread and are accustomed to lack of salt fromtheir childhood since most Hottentots live inregions where salt is unobtainable. But whenthey visit the colonists, leavened bread and foodspiced with salt taste excellent to them, and theymay also eat it. Is it then in abstinence ordered bya law when I have to do without something I donot possess?(6) The excision of a testicle and the practice ofcutting out a testicle or the circumcision of theforeskin are radically different: and all theHottentot tribes have at least nowadays doneaway with the initiation into manhood. Only theGreat Namaquas still retain it.(7) By suffocation the Jews mean anything thathas died a natural death, retaining its blood. If ananimal belonging to a Hottentot dies, it isconsumed.(8) This (if true, but unknown to me) mustoriginate from a natural aversion.(9) Since, of all uncivilised nations, they thinkleast of their wives; and I do not rememberhaving read in a single book of travels, thatwomen of other nations are permitted in suchassemblies.(10) This should read “may separate from them”or no longer cohabit with them. This is done byall uncivilised nations; they take wives and leavethem again if they believe they have a reason.They are not married under oath and since thewoman’s father reserves the right to take backhis daughter (according to Kolbe’s own account),the man may also separate from her.Mentzel concludes that “the reasons broughtforward appear far-fetched” and points out that if onelooked for similarities between people, one couldjust as easily find similarities between the Jews andthe Germans!” He then lists the similarities of Jewsand Germans. “We Germans too have a good deal incommon with the Jews: we respect the Sabbath, wekeep the Ten Commandments, we still retain muchof what Moses prescribed in Marriage andPolicematter; in a word we still have the Jewish OldTestament, Moses and the Prophets”, but ends bysaying “but what intelligent person would on thataccount imagine that we are descended from theJews?”He then points out that the Hottentots could nothave been descended from the Jews because nomatter where Jews settle, they never forsake theircustoms and faith.The Jewish nation has been scattered all over theworld and has since then been divided intocountless sections, but not one of these is knownto have discarded or forgotten the laws of Moses.Even supposing there are descendants of Jews,who live in far distant lands without Rabbis andwithout any written code, and thus had forgottenthe Mosaic Law in the course of time, yet theywould never forget the holiness of the Sabbath,circumcision and the aversion to shedding blood.Besides, the Mosaic ceremonial law is so deeprootedin all Jews in many respects that it wouldnot be improper to say that it has become secondnature to them. In additions one should onlyconsider this, that the Mosaic law enjoins nothingmore strictly than cleanliness, so that the Jewsdare not touch anything which in the smallestway is unclean in their eyes, according to thislaw; or if needs must, they wash themselvesagain, purify themselves or even have to remainunclean for a definite period; thus there is nogreater contrast between day and night thanbetween the cleanliness of the Jews of the OldTestament and the filthiness of the Hottentots,who live in constant squalor like a dung-beetle inthe dung… They not only touch but handleeverything that is intrinsically unclean and eatanimals that have perished of disease, even suchas have already begun to putrefy. 33Mentzel concludes that the Hottentots are in allrespects quite distinctive, with little in their nationalcustoms or religious rites comparable to others, andthat they probably had separated from the rest ofmankind “immediately after the Babylonishconfusion of languages”. His own theory of theirorigins is that hundreds or thousands of years before,people were shipwrecked along with their cattle andsheep at the furthest point of Africa after they hadbeen driven into the open sea by a storm. After all,“Carthaginians, Phoenicians from Tyre and Sidon,or even Solomon himself or King Hiram, had shipsthat sailed the seas.” What, he supposes, if thesurvivors then died, leaving behind some childrenwho had not yet learnt to speak properly, and these16
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Rosh Hashanah 2009 - South African Jewish Board of Deputies

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